identity. Naturally, when you put young children or teenagers with certain kinds of people, they will gradually start picking up habits of the people they are surrounded with. Jim Thorpe was one of those young – adults who were put in the Carlisle Indian School. In this school/ camp, the whites turn Native American children’s lifestyle into theirs. Jim...
enacted a policy of assimilation of Native Americans, to Americanize them. Their goal was to turn them into white men. Schools were an important part of facilitating their goal. In 1879, Richard Henry Pratt founded the Carlisle Indian School. It was the first school in which Native American children were culturally exposed to American ideology. The idea for the boarding school first came through treatment of Cheyenne warriors. In the 1860s, Americans were in the midst of a major western migration
would be of more use to “kill the Indian, and save the man” (“Kill”). Between the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the United States government used boarding schools to try to assimilate Native Americans into modern American culture; however, these plans only alienated these individuals, uprooting and stripping them of their cultural identity and individuality and forcing them into a dependency upon the U.S. The original purpose of Native American boarding schools was to assimilate the members of the
Stricken with poverty and living in the heart of Indian territory, he was able to achieve his dreams and then some. These things transferred to his athletics to make his family and the entire Sac and Fox tribes proud. Through hard work, determination, and overcoming many tragedies, Jim Thorpe became the greatest athlete of the 20th century, and his legacy even continues today. Jim Thorpe’s life started like most Indian childrens’ did, in Indian territory. He and his twin brother Charlie were born
Boarding schools are scary enough for children who speak the same language. Imagine a village, soldiers come in and take the children age five and older away in a wagon. These Children are taken to a school far away from home, family and culture. Separated by age and sex then stripped of their clothes, bathed and then forced to stand still as their hair is cut. Crying, some silently as they are given a uniform, at this point they are terrified of what is happening. They are told they have a new Christian
experiences at the Carlisle school recounting most notably an "opium-eater holding a position as a teacher." Zitkala-sa goes on to describe the aforementioned teacher saying, "I find it hard to count that white man a teacher who tortured an ambitious Indian youth by frequently reminding the brave changeling that he was nothing but a 'government pauper (92).'" From Zitkala-sa's perspective, one may see the unscrupulous types that were hired to supposedly save the American Indian. Feelings
policy. Jenkins’ recreated the experiences of students at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, bringing the reader along with her as students were stripped of culture, language, and family to be remade into a crude imitation of white society. “...Now, after having had my hair cut, a new thought came into my head. I felt I was no more Indian…” (Jenkins, pg 75). Richard Henry Pratt, the creator of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School that became the inspiration and model for many similar institutions
James Francis Thorpe accomplished without argument what no other athlete in history has. The Sac and Fox Indian won gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon in the 1912 Olympic games in Sweden and played both professional football and professional baseball. His feats on the football field put him on the 1911 and 1912 All-American football teams. In 1920 he became the first president of the American Professional Football Association (later to become the NFL). In 1951, he was one of the first men
Native American Boarding Schools During the Westward Expansion People know about the conflict between the Indian's cultures and the settler's cultures during the westward expansion. Many people know the fierce battles and melees between the Indians and the settlers that were born from this cultural conflict. In spite of this, many people may not know about the systematic and deliberate means employed by the U.S. government to permanently rid their new land of the Indians who had lived their own
government led cultural genocide, troops came to camp to disarm the Lakota tribe at the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. This event quickly escalated to a massacre of Indian peoples. The spread of the Ghost Dance religion led to tensions between the Plains Indians and the United States Army and was the main reason for the Battle of Wounded Knee. This was just one example of American Indians having to choose between submission and death in the face of adversity from the U.S. Government. American
Our spirits Don’t Speak English: Indian Boarding school is an 80 minute documentary that details the mental and physical abuse that the Native Americans endured during the Indian Boarding school experience from the mid 19th to the mid 20th century. In the beginning going to school for Indian children meant listening to stories told by tribal elders, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and storytellers. These tales past down from generation to generation were metaphors for the life experience and
He felt that I... ... middle of paper ... ...hough Montezuma was no longer alive, this was a right he fought for, starting in 1915 when he joined with the Society of American Indians. His newsletter and lectures helped promote his ideas and encouraged Indian people to fight for what was theirs. Today, American Indians have the same rights and responsibilities as all other Americans. Their land is protected and they are guaranteed health care and quality education because of the work of Carlos
Orphan Trains Orphan trains and Carlisle and the ways people from the past undermined the minorities and children of America. The film "The orphan Trains" tells us the story of children who were taken from the streets of New York City and put on trains to rural America. A traffic in immigrant children were developed and droves of them teamed the streets of New York (A People's History of the United States 1492-present, 260). The streets of NYC were dirty, overcrowded, and dangerous. Just as
On May 22, 1888, Charlotte Thorpe gave birth to Jacobus (Jim) Franciscus Thorpe and his twin brother, Charles, on an Indian reservation near modern-day Prague, Oklahoma. His Native American roots trace back to chief Black Hawk of the Sac and Fox tribe. His Native American name was Wa-tho-huk, which means “Bright Path.” As a child, he experienced many hardships and struggles. Despite those circumstances, he grew up to be the world’s greatest athlete and play six sports and star in the Olympics.
ethnicities. Many believe that Native Americans are at a higher risk for mental illness than those of European descent. Many also believe that Native Americans have more people suffer from depression than their white counterparts (Stark & Wilkins, American Indian Politics and the American Political System, 2011). There have been studies conducted to test whether or not this is the case, with mixed results. Some studies say that Natives are at a higher risk and others say they are not. This discrepancy makes
America in the sixteenth century. The American Indians, who had a culture of welcoming and honoring any visitor welcomed them and provided them with food and almost all the assistance they needed. But immediately after the arrival of the European to America, there was a conflict of the two cultures; the American Indians culture and the Europeans culture. American Indians who consisted of many tribes had their own culture and way of life. Every American Indian tribe spoke a different language and had
Indian “boarding” schools were places of reformation. At first the adults were targeted, but after their efforts were proved futile because of too much resistance, they switched to the children, who were of course more pliable. At first Christian missionaries established some on the reservations where schools were too far for the children to attend, but then the government got even more involved. So even though there were day schools on the reservations, the “… reformers preferred off-reservation
view. In 1933, Luther Standing Bear published his book “Land of the Spotted Eagle”. In this book, he talks about the terrible conditions under which his people live and how it needs to change. He speaks specifically to this in the excerpt “What the Indian Means to America”. Here he is referencing the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Standing Bear talks about how the European Americans caused these disasters and how the Native American could be the solution to these problems. He uses his rhetorical
1876-1877: The Battle of Little Bighorn - The Indians were informed that if they did not come into the reservation by January 1, 1876, the task of forcing them to submit would be handed over to the War Department. - On February 1, 1876, the War Department ordered the military to subdue the Sioux. - On March 1, three expeditions were to be launched against the Sioux simultaneously, one under General Gibben, one under General Crook, and the third under General Custer. - Custer was instructed to march
Richard Pratt: Kill the Indian… and save the man In 1887 the federal government launched boarding schools designed to remove young Indians from their homes and families in reservations and Richard Pratt –the leader of Carlisle Indian School –declared, “citizenize” them. Richard Pratt’s “Kill the Indian… and save the man” was a speech to a group of reformers in 1892 describing the vices of reservations and the virtues of schooling that would bring young Native Americans into the mainstream of American